Favourite Xmas treats!

With respect to favourite treats that are Xmas specific, my four favourites are these:

1. Yule Logs

The best ones I ever had were made by an old German fellow at a little place called Klein's Bakery on Hamilton Road in London, Ontario. Klein's supplied the restaurants and delicatessens in the London area with the most positively exquisite black forest, mocha, lemon, walnut, hazelnut and marzipan cakes. His cakes were not only absolutely delicious but they were little works of art, particularly the Yule logs. But you really had to learn about Klein's by word of mouth since there was nothing to draw a person into the bakery since it was located in a lower income part of town and it was very unprepossessing in appearance. Moreover he only baked to order so there was nothing on display even if you walked in off the street! I chanced upon Klein's in 1977 when I was managing an H & R Block outlet across the street and patronized it for holiday cakes for over thirty years. And then he went and retired after being in the baking business for over fifty years! The nerve! I don't think I'll ever find cakes of that quality again, particularly not at Klein's very friendly price point.

2. Kisielius

A jellied berry pudding made from cherries, lingonberries, red currants, loganberries, raspberries, boysenberries, strawberries or gooseberries in Europe, it's most commonly made from cranberries here in North America quite simply because frozen cranberries have long been so widely available here at this time year. Sweet and tart, it's a traditional Lithuanian Xmas dish.

3. Fruit Cake

Surprisingly enough, I've never had better fruit cake than that made by Weston, which is the mass market baker of Wonder Bread here in Canada! But Weston does the Christmas cake very right with lots and lots of fruit and nuts and it's sold in high end retail stores such as the Bay.

4. Kringles

A traditional Scandinavian Xmas pastry. Once again, the bakery that was London's favourite supplier, Chapman's, closed down earlier this century when the baker retired after having been in business for many decades. A person had to preorder their kringles in November or shop elsewhere.

fruitcake,Stollen,Pizelles,the fritters my grandmother made with figs or baccala!!!--they look the same and you never knew which you had till yo bit into it!!! :) and all those amazing holiday Italian cookies!!!!

I've heard that the Junket Danish Dessert mix available in the States in both Strawberry and Raspberry flavours may produce something very similar. I can't say for sure because Junket isn't sold in Canada and I just heard about the Danish Dessert mix yesterday.

While mixes to produce kisielius are now sold throughout Scandinavia and northeastern Europe, hidebound old country traditionalists here in North America will insist upon making it from scratch.

- cover the cranberries with the warm water and bring to a gentle boil. That will be the time when the cranberries begin to break open.

- put the berries through a food mill; when all the cranberries have been crushed, wash the food mill with the boiling liquid.

- measure the liquid plus fruit pure; this will determine the amount of potato starch needed to thicken the juice to pudding consistency.

- for each 8 oz./ 1 cup of fruit pure and juice mixture, use 1 tsp. starch. Set aside 1 cup of juice to dissolve the starch.

-add sugar to taste; for a medium sweet pudding, use 1/2 cup of sugar for 2 cups of fruit and juice mix.

- add cinnamon and sugar to the juice mix and bring to a gentle boil. Gentle heat is required to maintain the deep garnet color of the pudding.

- add, with vigorous stirring, the starch solution and continue at a gentle boil. Stirring constantly the starch will change from a cloudy solution to a clear, deep garnet. As soon as the pudding has thickened and become clear, remove from the heat and let it cool.

- the pudding can be served from a large bowl, or can be poured into individual serving dishes.

Commercially available cranberry juice can also be used to make this pudding. Same proportion of starch, but sugar amount will have to be reduced as commercially available cranberry juice is quite sweet. Also addition of cinnamon and cloves will enhance the cranberry flavor.

Two holiday traditions in my family, for many decades, have been Pillsbury Orange Rolls for breakfast on Christmas morning as we open our presents and one of my favorite treats since I was a little boy: TURKEY JOINTS!!! It isn't Christmas until I've had one (or a few) of these: https://www.turkeyjoints.com/catalog/index.php

Not so much a stocking stuffer as they run close to $20 a jar. They do offer other candies at the shop and I think sometimes even broken ones in a gift bag for much less money. There was a always a jar under our tree every December 25th with a tag that read, "From Santa".

fruitcake - there's a local company, www.bakermaidproducts.net, that make a great fruitcake, full of nuts and fruit, a little brandy and rum. The fruitcake is called the Creole Royale. I can never remember the name, but it comes in a distinctive decorative tin, with a repro watercolor scene of Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral in the background. Each slice is individually wrapped.

pfeffernusse - I bought 2 bags at Tuesday Morning

Cella's chocolate covered cherries - love em, but only see them at Christmas, and for the first time last year - Valentine's Day

Santa always brought me real maple sugar candies when I was a kid, and I have to have them at Christmas to this day. Besides that, like others, I love stollen (have made it twice), panettone (especially as French toast), homemade cookies, and my mom's fudge, which I can't seem to replicate.

Since Pigiron kinda broke the "dessert" part of the conversation I'd like to say that I'm not a sweet eater so my favorite treat around Christmas time is cakes but crab cakes. Chocolate covered cherries are my sons favorite and peanut butter fudge made by his Grandmother, it's the only time of year she makes it.

They're available in traditional raisin, apple and blueberry flavours but also in not so traditional chocolate and pumpkin flavours. Nevertheless, I'll have to give them a proper two or three kringle try next year!

Hepcat-maybe you havent read the threads about Kringles made in Racine, Wisconsin. As I am sure the one's you enjoy are great, there are two bakeries that are superb. O& H Bakery, and Berendstens( spelling) Obviously I prefer O&H.....

HepcatI'll hunt down the threads since Wisconsin sounds like the kind of place where really good kringles could be had! If only I was rich enough to travel like that on a whim though. Hmmmmm. Perhaps combining kringles with the Milwaukee Admirals? Maybe, maybe!